Increased Availability, to reflect UK law Options

[Drain Brain]

Okay - bear in mind that we are all waiting for the Euro-SB and that I don't have the London SB.

I was thinking of increasing the availability of firearms and melee weapons to reflect the stricter prohibition of weaponry.

Melee Weapons, Pistols, Sports Rifles and Sporting Shotguns: +1/+50%

SMG's, Shotguns, Assault Rifles: +2/+100%

Sniper Rifles/Heavy Weaponry: +3/+150%



How does this sound? I know it will make things very difficult, but that's kinda the idea!

Has anyone else made similar modifications? How well have they worked? And did the players complain too much?

[252]

Sounds pretty cool definetly if your the GM. Remember that one of the rules of being a GM is that you are GGOODD. Oh just be fair, and they seem pretty fair to me. As long as you don't make it so that the things they go against always seem to have these things that are so tough to get.

I guess I'm just saying remember the flip side of the coin, those codes are suppose to be universal. So some gang members/shadowrun wannabes aren't going to have kick ass stuff diffiently when pistols are hard enough to come by.

[Drain Brain]

Exactly. I think that running in England, if you'll excuse the old "my country is better than yours" crap, would create sneakier Shadowrunners.

Think about it - with these rules in place, it's pretty damn difficult to come by the big guns. That means that all the runners are going to be under-equiped in terms of combat. The corps, though, being extra-terratorial, can ship in whatever the hell they please.

This means that to start your career as a runner you need to think about how to do things without getting into combat. Being sneaky and stealthy. I want to get my characters to think about what they are doing, rather than the old "frontal assault" style. If they are more than likely to get popped, they'll be more inclined to use their heads.

Now, once you're in you can pinch as many guns as you want, and with a higher street index (as would be a logical extension of the avail. increasses) you could make a killing, if you'll excuse the pun.

This does, however, mean that a number of Corp tactics would have to change to reflect this... trackers in firearms? Remote explosives? At the extreme end would be biometric safeties.

You could also cap the applicable firearms skills at something lower than six.

You can use these rules anywhere, theoretically (I just use the UK because of its history of gun restriction and, well, because I'm British). They would be a perfect means to get your players thinking and performing non-violently.

Now... cyberware........ :vegm:

[Snowblind]

yeah - sounds like a good idea...I personally like anything that reduces the likelyhood of the players going out on any milkrun toting their HMGs . BUT remember one thing in relation to what you've said; runners are pros - as it says in the good book "There are pros and cons..." so you shouldn't make your players live via their looting.
All runners should only have to commit simple theft and robbery in the direst of circumstances (like when prepping for a vengance run against a Johnson that screwed them over big time). So having the restrictive gunrules is good, but don't make them so restrictive that the players have to go con to make a living.

Also there should be some serious social disadvantages to having guntotin' secguards running around all over the corp playground, simply because Joe Q Ordinary isn't used to seeing weapons. So maybe the corps will have a more restrictive policy w the weapons although there's no strict legal reason for them to do so....

[Drain Brain]

Quite right...

Seeing UK Police in RL is an oddity and makes people stare, so I should think that the Corps would employ a "zero visibility" approach. Unarmed patrols (but with really efficient communications) and what ammounts to a HTR team on call for when the sh1t hits the fan.

As for the looting... it kinda happens in my games anyway (I have greedy players) but if you want to control it, use the "tracking chip" gimmick I mentioned above - they'll only do it a couple of times before they wise up!

Also, guns aren't totally impossible to get - once you're in play, you can get anything you want, as usual, it'll just be more difficult.

I am also looking toward assessing what would be more available than anything else. For example Military Issue stuff from the Royal British Army would be easier to come by than the (very UCAS) Predator III. Ratings would reflect this.